School of Forest Resources

School of Forest Resources

Contrary to recent well-publicized research, habitat loss, not insecticide use, continues to be the best explanation for the declines in grassland bird populations in the U.S. since the 1980s, according to a new study by ecologists.

A senior Forest Science major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences won the STIHL Collegiate Timbersports Championship, held June 1-3 in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. This year marked the third consecutive year that Tim Benedict, of Pittsfield, Pa., competed in the national finals against five other regional qualifiers in four events: the chainsaw competition, the single buck event, the underhand chop and the standing block chop.

Penn State's 2012 Goddard Forum, "Oil and Gas Development Impacts on Forested Ecosystems: Research and Management Challenges," will bring together scientists, managers, conservation organizations and industry representatives working with oil and gas development to share research results and management strategies.

John Carlson, professor of molecular genetics in the College of Agricultural Sciences, has been chosen to receive the 2011-12 Alex and Jessie C. Black Award for Excellence in Research. The honor recognizes significant accomplishments in agricultural research at Penn State.

A study of more than 200 drinking-water wells near Marcellus Shale natural-gas wells in 20 counties did not find statistically significant evidence of contamination from hydraulic fracturing -- a process used by gas drillers to release natural gas using a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemical additives. The study was conducted by researchers and extension educators in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

A forest products researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is playing a role in a national effort to gauge the viability of wood and wood waste as feedstocks for jet fuel and other high-value co-products. As part of a multi-institutional consortium, Paul Smith, professor of forest products marketing at Penn State, will lead a group that will quantify environmental and social values and determine how those values influence purchasing decisions for biofuel-based products. "This is an exciting opportunity to work with a world-class team of industrial, academic and government researchers to address one of society's most pressing challenges," said Smith, who before coming to Penn State worked for five years as an industrial forester in Colorado and Montana, and for two years as operations manager for a wood products export-trading company in the Pacific Northwest.

The Penn State School of Forest Resources will host families, friends and Nittany Lion fans at Pennsylvania Forest Fest, a celebration of 2011 as the International Year of Forests. Festivities at the Sept. 25 event will be free and open to the public.

Loggers, sawmill operators, value-added processors and forest landowners in Pennsylvania and surrounding states can get valuable business and operational knowledge by attending the Forest Products Equipment and Technology Exposition, June 3-4. Hosted by the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association in partnership with Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and School of Forest Resources, the event will be held at the Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs, on Pa. Route 45, nine miles southwest of State College.

The Pennsylvania Forest Products Association is bringing its bi-annual trade exposition and educational workshops back to Penn State, June 3-4. Hosted in partnership with Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and School of Forest Resources, the event will be held at the Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs, on Pennsylvania Route 45, nine miles southwest of State College.

A plant geneticist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has received a $3.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop genomics resources to address forest-health issues affecting hardwood trees. Principal investigator John Carlson, professor of molecular genetics in the college's School of Forest Resources and director of the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics, explained that the research is needed because of the increasing incidence of introduced exotic pests, diseases and invasive plants -- combined with climate change and forest fragmentation -- threatening the sustainability of forest ecosystems.

Penn State Extension, in partnership with the Quality Deer Management Association and the University's School of Forest Resources' Web Seminar Center, will offer three webinars this spring focusing on the management of white-tailed deer.

James Grace, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, was recently selected as the new Maurice K. Goddard chair in forestry and environmental resource conservation in Penn State's School of Forest Resources.

After months of very little rainfall, and with long-term weather forecasts predicting little improvement through fall and early winter, well owners across the state have begun to grow uneasy, according to a groundwater expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

If it seems to you, as you drive around Pennsylvania, that the leaves on many trees began turning colors early this year, it's because they have, according to a forest expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. On the heels of one of the hottest, driest summers on record for Pennsylvania, hardwoods across the state began going from green to gold, orange, red and purple -- and to dull brown -- in mid-September. "It has been so dry, and trees in some areas are so challenged by drought conditions, that their leaves just went straight to brown and are falling off the branches already," said Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology.